The Sentry
by Dethklok
Summary: That's what he calls himself, but there's no record of him anywhere on Earth. No one that powerful just appears out of the blue. Who is he? Can he be trusted? This will be a RavenxMarvel OC in about 3 to 4 chapters. Please review! on hold for now.
1. No Backup?

_**This is a crossover of DC Teen Titans with a character from Marvel who I happen to like. One alteration I am making to this Marvel character is that he will be the same age as the Teen Titans for story purposes. Any questions regarding this Marvel character, do not hesitate to ask or look up yourself. Please enjoy.**_

* * *

The city center shook with the sounds of battle.

Alarms rang, breaking the calm of the midday lunch hour. If one took the time to walk a block or two down the tech district's main street, the smashed front of a WayneTech R&D lab complex could be seen, along with the smashed set of titanium vault doors that had been flung casually across the street only a few minutes ago. Clear finger indentations were present in the metal, indicating someone possessed of extreme strength. Also the fact that the vault doors were imbedded about a foot and a half into the nearby sidewalk was a sign.

Suddenly, with the distinct crack of fists hitting flesh, a man-mountain smashed into the street, his head coming to a stop near the vault doors. A smaller man stepped into the picture. Over half his body was composed of a white, gleaming metal, alongside lines of glowing blue circuitry, pulsing with power. He lightly smiled, one eye glowing a dull red. It was artificial. The other eye held an amused look.

Cyborg snapped and cracked his knuckles. A metal pinging sound could be heard, like buffng the dents out of a car. He then assumed a fighting stance. "Mammoth, don't you know that when you and your friends break things, I'm gonna have to break _you_?"

The man called Mammoth scrambled to his feet. Mammoth really was the word, at close to nine feet tall and six hundred pounds of muscle... mostly. "We'll see, tin man. Let's dance." he growled.

"Booyah." Cyborg said dryly, before grabbing Mammoth in a wrestling move and flipping him up into the air.

"Have you completed your analysis, CLOC?" the man asked. He was sitting on the roof of a skyscraper several blocks away, and had a clear line of sight to the conflict between the Teen Titans and the members of HIVE, whose objective today seeemed to be raiding the city's technology district for advanced prototypes and exotic materials.

The intelligence named CLOC turned from analyzing and evaluating these metahumans to face his creator. He would have liked to watch a little more, observe the battle techniques of these seemingly opposing groups. The skills of the one called 'Robin', the leader of the Teen Titans, interested him. He was skilled enough to handle metas, despite no superhuman abilities of his own. But that was no strike against him. CLOC had learned long ago and in another world that powers or not, humans were the most dangerous animal of all.

The man sat on the edge of the roof of the skyscraper. The street was ninety stories straight down. His legs dangled over the edge lazily. This man was a teenager really, at least he looked like one. Only CLOC kept track of truly how old his creator was. After a while, his creator had stopped counting the years. He said it was pointless, seeing as how time had no real meaning for him. A valid point.

_The Teen Titans are currenly composed of five members, and are well-known worldwide."_ CLOC began, his voice humming with metallic harmony. _"Jump City is their home base. They are regarded as celebrities here_, _a younger version of popular supergroups that existed in our world. Superhuman activity has been met with a far better reception here."_

I've noticed," the man said. "No Sentinels, no camps, no Registrations...continue, please."

CLOC's holographic array lit up and a current flatscreen feed of the Titans squaring off against the HIVE members played. The focus zoomed in on Robin.

_This is Robin, the leader of the Titans." _the screen showed a brightly dressed teen, about 17, backflipping and using a collapsible bo staff to evade micro missile strikes. _"Analyzing his battle patterns, he posesses knowledge in over 40 fighting styles, which has somehow been melded into a form that is highly unpredictable. I have tracked capoeira leg strikes, Muay Thai blocking maneuvers, Shokotan jabs...the list goes on. He also posseses specialized equipment." _The picture moved even closer, to a yellow utility belt. Green gloved hands pulled out three disks with blue centers. The picture zoomed back out to see Robin throwing the disks at a small boy in a black jumpsuit, bald, wearing goggles and a high tech backpack. The disks exploded, freezing two of the large metallic spider legs emerging from the pack. The third one froze the boy's midsection, holding him in place.

"No powers..." he mumbled, studying the feed.

The picture shifted upwards, revealing a young woman wearing a pink and silver costume. She was floating in the air, firing neon green energy blasts from her hands at a group of men wearing the same crimson costume. On their chests was a white circle with the division sign. He noticed that every man had the same face.

He chuckled. "What an idiot. First thing they teach you is not to advertise your powers like that. The division sign...three guesses what this MENSA graduate can do..."

CLOC's metallic waldoes floated and shifted away from his main body. One tentacle reached up and scratched CLOC's head, right above the main eye, in a very human fashion.

_"Yes...sir. The young lady is known as Starfire. An alien. Her presence on Earth is a mystery, but she has been a member of this group since it's beginning, three years ago. On an interesting note...a multispectral scan revealed those energy discharges are not a natural ability. Her DNA has been modified. The flight and above-normal strength however, seem natural abilities."_ CLOC 's words were punctualted as Starfire dove down into the mass of Billy Numerouses and smashed it apart.

Before CLOC could continue, both their attentions were grabbed by an explosion and backwash of energy further down the block. Two women, one wearing a black leotard and dark purple cloak with a hood, and another with pink hair styled in a horned fashion, wearing a purple and black striped outfit with go-go boots, fought one another. They seemed to be evenly matched, the one with the pink hair throwing off massive amounts of pinkish energy at the other girl, which was blocked by shields of black energy.

_"Dark energy..." _CLOC remarked.

"What?"

_"That young woman, the one in the cloak, her energy output is quite high, and of a type unknown to me. It does bear a similarity to magical waveform patterns I am familiar with. A preliminary analysis would indicate she is the most powerful combatant. In relation to your own power levels...I would have to do a closer and more in-depth analysis."_

"That will have to wait," the man said, rising to his feet. In the distance, one of the energy blasts fired by the pink-haired girl was deflected and struck a nearby building, destroying the entire top floor and exposing open offices to the street. The fact that the building was deserted did not change what needed to be done.

"This has gone on long enough..."

_"Sir, are you sure this is wise? Given youe level of power, stopping this altercation is child's play. But you may be seen as a larger threat."_

"That's a risk I'll just have to take. Stay here." the man said, before falling backwards off the roof of the skyscraper. His clothes ruffled in the wind. He wore a royal blue jacket over a black t-shirt and cargo pants, and wore black boots. He closed his eyes as he brought the power foward. He had always thought of it in terms of...becoming. Shifting from a...diminished state to something _far_ more advanced.

He was now ten stories from the ground. The world seemed to hum for a moment, an electric harmonic sounding, and then his descent was halted, and he was away in a flash of golden light and electricity.

* * *

Everyone, Titan and HIVE member alike stopped for a microsecond as a low _humming_ sounded in the distance, accompanied by the briefest flashes of light. Then they continued.

Mammoth pulled a light pole out of the ground, wires sparking, and hit Cyborg across the chest, slamming him into a far wall. Cyborg looked at his chest. His internal systems had been breached. That last hit had compromised his primary armor. He had to end this fast. He tried to get up, but the situation was worse than he realized. He registered a power dispersion effect. Soon his secondary systems would shut down, then primary systems were next.

Mammoth dropped the light pole and lifted a nearby minivan. His strength was enough that lifting a two and a half ton vehicle required little effort. He lifted it over hs head and slowly approached Cyborg, whose motor functions were quickly slipping away.

A slow grin spread over Mammoth's face, showing his enlarged canines. "Looks like this is it...tin man. The scrapheap is your next stop."

Cyborg looked around. Everyone was engaged. Starfire was trapped under a dogpile of several dozen Billy Numerouses, Beast Boy was in gorilla form, carving through several HIVE troopers and bots. Raven and Jinx were going at it something fierce up high, and Robin was dodging Gizmo's micro missiles and tossing concussion disks all the while.

"No backup, hero." Mammoth closed in.

There was a blur of movement, and there was a loud _CRUNCH_ as the minivan was dropped, it's frame denting and the windshield breaking. That got everyone's attention.

Cyborg looked up as Mammoth was in the air, at least thirty feet off the ground, held tightly by the throat. His arms were flailing madly, striking at the person holding him in an iron grip, but to no effect. The man holding him looked to be about Cyborg's age, although there seemed something older about him. Maybe the way he carried himself. He was blonde, with mid-length hair that stopped at his neck. He wore a yellow or gold uniform, with dark blue boots. His collar and cape were also dark blue, as were his gloves. But it was the belt that drew the eye. It was designed similarly to a wrestler's championship belt, but with no decoration save a gleaming S cut sharply into the dark blue material. Something in Cyborg wanted to make a mental association with Superman, for some reason, but could not. Whoever this was, it wasn't him.

The man's eyes were a gleaming gold color. No pupil or white of the eye could be seen. Everyone stopped, looking at this new development. Mammoth was the strongest to come out of HIVE Academy, with strength comparable to Starfire's. But that didn't seem to do much against this newcomer, a late addition to the party.

It was Gizmo's sqeaking and grating voice which ended the quiet. "An _S_? Who are you, scuzz-muncher? Some kind of Superman rip-off?"

A quick blur of motion, and Mammoth was flying. The stranger had tossed him away and down the street. He finally stopped, two blocks away, when he struck an armored car. Even then, the entire side of the car caved in and tipped over on it's side. It's alarm blared for a moment, before sputtering out and going silent.

"I am no Superman." he said, touching down. He grabbed Cyborg and pulled him to his feet. He looked at the breach. "You are damaged," he said casually, as if stating a fact.

"Yeah..."

"You are losing power. I can feel it, bleeding away." He placed his hand in the breach.

"Hey, what are you-" Robin was cut off as the hand the stranger placed in Cyborg's chest glowed and pulsed. Cyborg jerked around for a moment, the normal blue glow of his circuitry momentarily replaced by a golden surge of power. He then stood on his own, and the stranger took his hand out. "You still need to be repaired. My energy will only last for several hours before it dissapates in you." Again, he stated this as fact.

"Okay." Cyborg felt strange. This energy was...different. Normally, when he was powered up and functioning, he could feel the consistent energy drain of his systems on his power cells. It was minute, but constant. With this, that was gone. The energy felt constant. He felt as strong now as he did .47 microseconds ago. There was no weakness...at all.

There was a loud _THRUM_ and a sonic vibration. Gizmo's backpack had assembled an antitank missile launcher and fired it at them. Cyborg leapt out of the way, but the stranger just stood there. At the last second, he moved slightly to the side and caught the missile with one hand. A three foot missile. The engine slowly died out and the missile went dead, it's fuel depleted. He looked at it for a moment, and then dropped it. It _CLANGED_ on the ground loudly.

"What the hell...?" Gizmo said. The missile had been firing on all four cylinders, and was fast enough to go Mach 2 in .125 seconds. But this guy not only caught it, but was strong enough to resist the missile until it ran out of fuel. "What the hell are you?!" he barked.

"Does it really matter?"

The quiet was again broken by the rapid sound of a laser cannon firing. Gizmo had assembled another weapon and was firing for all he was worth. The stranger walked foward, not even fazed. Gizmo continued firing, even as he was picked up. It finally stopped when the stranger ripped the backpack off of him and crumpled it like a paper ball in his hands. Gizmo looked at his smashed pack in shock.

Jinx was next. she broke away from Raven, who decided to watch how the stranger would deal with this. He was...quite handsome, toeing the line between nondescript and striking nicely. Jinx ran foward, tossing hex bolts full force, a look of determination on her face. They impacted on the stranger and were somehow...deconstructed. They went from pink beams of force to wisps of energy that slowly faded as they struck him. She continued firing, until the stranger palmed her head and sharply pushed her back several feet, leaving her skidding on the pavement, her pride quite wounded. Somehow...that was worse.

At this point, Mammoth, who had regained consciousness, ran back up to his teammates, who assumed a defensive formation. Billy Numerous had dispersed his clones and assumed an exxagerated fighting stance.

"What-what do you want?" his accent twanged in the air.

"Get out."

"Excuse me?' Jinx said angrily. Her pride reasserted itself. "Whose gonna make us? You? A few lucky shots. A defective missile." She didn't sound so sure about her excuses.

The stranger turned around. "Don't turn your back on me!' Jinx barked.

He kept moving. He stopped at the minivan Mammoth had used earlier. He bent down and picked it up, eventually holding it vertically by the front bumper. With one hand.

"Whoa..." Beast Boy breathed. The stranger slightly dipped the hand holding the car by the bumper, and then with one smooth, sharp upward motion, threw the minivan straight up.

Fifty feet.

Two hundred feet.

One thousand feet.

After this, it faded from view, and did not come back down.

"Whatever you came here for, consider your mission a failure. If you come at me again, you're going up after it."

Every one of them slightly disengaged themselves, trying to keep their dignity and back away at the same time. "We have another engagement..." Jinx said, trying to keep a smooth face. Slowly, the HIVE troopers and bots made themselves scarce, and the four HIVE Academy members soon dissappeared around a corner.

The Titans slowly lowered themselved to the ground, or got up and brushed themselves off. Robin and Raven watched him warily, preparing to move if he attacked them. Starfire had an expression alternating between happiness and caution. Cyborg seemed to be lost in thought. Beast Boy had a look of awe on his face.

Everyone stepped back a moment as the _humming_ sound from before reappeared. The stranger's uniform shifted into the blue jacket and black shirt and pants again in a flash of light. His eyes lost their constant glow to be replaced by eyes with golden pupils.

"Hmmm. After all this time, you can't forget. Just like riding a bike."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Robin asked.

"Just a concerned bystander. I'm new to this area, but I'd hate to see it destroyed. This seems like a nice city by the bay. I was on the fence, but I think I'll stay for a while."

"That doesn't answer anything!" Beast Boy sputtered. You- and the car-still not coming down!"

"It's probably in orbit." the man shrugged his shoulders, as if that didn't mean anything.

"You threw a land vehicle into orbit with one hand! Never in all my travels have I ever met someone who could perform feats of such strength!" Star seemed quite happy.

"I'm glad I could make your day, but you should get your friend some help." he gestured to Cyborg. "My energy won't last forever." He turned and began walking away.

"Wait!" Beast Boy called. "You really came through for us, and we don't even know your name."

The man smiled wistfully. "I was known as the Sentry, but that was a long time ago." He turned the corner and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

_**Please review, and I may not be able to update until after Spring Break, as I'll be away from my computer. Please be honest, and if there's something you don't understand, say it and I'll try to clarify it in future chapters. This is my first Teen Titans fanfiction, but I have some...interesting ideas for the direction of this story.**_


	2. Unsung Hero

The comm uplink to the Justice League Watchtower was stable, and Robin felt his mentor's presence. Before the strain of their partnership had forced them to split ways, they were the Dynamic Duo, the terror of the Gotham underworld. But there's only so much committment you can place on 'the mission' before it consumes you. That was something Bruce didn't understand at the time, which led to the dissolution of their partnership. The fact that he had joined the League meant at the very least he had...reevaluated his opinions, which for Batman, was quite a victory. Despite everything, Dick was glad fences were being mended.

But enough of that. No time to get sentimental. Dick activated the security firewalls and anti-intrusion countermeasures he had personally installed in his computer system and quarters. No one else knew about them, not even Cyborg.

_COMM MASKING COMPLETE. FIREWALLS AT 100 PERCENT AND HOLDING. SOUND DAMPENERS IN PLACE. QUAD-ENCRYPTION ALGORITHMS IN PLACE. Y/N?_

Robin tapped Y on his keyboard, and a secure datastream went out from Titan's Tower to the Watchtower in geoscynchronus orbit some 110,000 miles above the Earth. This particular datastream was tagged as PRIVATE and shunted through 62 servers and 14 sub-junctions before being routed to a hidden communications hub that did not exist on the primary plans for the Watchtower. Only Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, and Bruce Wayne knew that it existed.

Ten minutes after confirmation that the signal had been sent and was holding, Batman strolled into view of the camera and took a seat.

_"Took longer than expected to get away."_ was his only reply. _"I've analyzed the data and recording you sent me, and I've done some investigating of my own."_

Yesterday, after the stranger who called himself 'The Sentry' had left, and Cyborg had been repaired, Robin had asked him to make a copy of his memory files of the battle, along with his sensor analysis of the stranger, and his internal diagnostic data of when the stranger had 'jumpstarted' Cyborg with a portion of his own energy. Cyborg had been astounded for the first time Robin had known him. He kept mentioning how even his preliminary analysis of the energy revolutionized several known theories on quantum dynamics and other etsoteric fields. And just like 'The Sentry' had said, several hours after the Titans returned to the Tower, the energy Cyborg had been given simply dissappeared. Robin had simply said he was going to do some private analysis of the data and shut himself in his room ever since. He had called Bruce 12 hours ago, alerted him of the situation, and sent him a copy of all related data.

A smaller window popped up, showing Cyborg's vsual memory files, watching 'The Sentry' in action against Mammoth. It played out, stopping when Gizmo fired the antitank missile and 'The Sentry' caught it. With one hand. A perfect close up of his face filled the window.

_"I have run this face against every known database that exists, along with the name 'The Sentry'. Nothing, absolutely nothing has come up on either front. For all intents and purposes, this man does not exist."_

_"Of course, that's impossible." _Batman continued, closing the mini-window. _The data your teammate gathered was...very interesting, to say the least. Yesterday, at the time you encountered this individual, several government satellites and monitoring stations, along with the Watchtower's sensors, detected a mass leaving Earth's atmosphere at well above escape velocity. Superman went EVA and recovered it, and even I was suprised to see the object was a slightly smashed up minivan. It was only after you contacted me and sent me the data and this footage that I was able to make the connection."_

"Have you informed the League about this?" Robin inquired, although he knew the answer.

_"Until we know more, it would serve no purpose to alert the Council about a threat we have no real information on. Exotic energy readings, an...extreme display of strength, a new hero, **if** he is one... All the League knows right now is that somehow, a minivan achieved escape velocity. Information before action. Remember that."_

With that, Batman cut the connection. But Robin had all the informaion he would need, and a plan of attack. He powered down his workstation and left his room.

* * *

Raven, a repaired Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire sat around the kitchen area in the Tower. They had been discussing yesterday's events and Robin's absence for close to twenty minutes now. As always, Raven took the cautious approach, the road of suspicion, while Beast Boy seemed to be too easily impressed by feats of power. Starfire was consistently optimistic, eager to meet a new and powerful friend. It was how powerful his 'Sentry' was that slightly concerned all of them. From the way he had spoken, it ws obvious that the ways of a hero were nothing new to him, yet no one had ever heard of him, which was odd. 

"All I know is that he saved my life," Cyborg said. "Any other judgements, we sould make until after we feel this guy out."

"I don't like it." Raven said. But then, when did she like anything? "We have no clue as to who this guy is. He just flies in and tosses Mammoth into a car, and then scares the rest of them off by throwing another car into orbit? Who honestly can do that?"

"I have studied many of the Earth's heroes during my time here," Star interjected. "The only other I have seen with such power and skill has been the one called Superman. But he is an alien, the last Kryptonian. Could it be possible that this stranger too is an alien?" Star sounded slightly hopeful at this. Beyond Superman and the Martian Manhunter, neither of which she knew personally, she did not know any other nonhumans who lived on Earth.

"Sorry Star," Cyborg said. "Every reading and analysis I've done of the data says he is human. But that is all it says, which is strange. I couldn't understand his energy pattern at all. Biologically, he seemed human. But he's definitely something else."

Before Beast Boy could speak up, the main doors opened and Robin walked in. He looked at all four of them.

"I've been conducting my own investigation, and I've come up with absolutely nothing. So here's what we're going to do. By now, HIVE will be looking for this stranger too. Someone that powerful, they are not going to let this go easily. We're going to go out and look for him. We'll split up. It HIVE finds him first, they'll probably attack. This 'Sentry' seems strong enough to take care of himself, but there will be collateral damage. We're going to prevent that, and talk to this guy if we can, determine his intentions."

"Titans, move out."


	3. Through my eyes, Face to Face

"It was...better than I thought, CLOC."

_"Does that mean Robert, that you are returning to costumed adventuring?"_

"I don't know yet. Things are different here, can't you feel it?"

_"I cannot 'feel' anything. But I get the gist of what you are saying. When shall you return home?"_

"In a few hours. I want to do some walking around first. Continue monitoring the worldwide communication hubs and redflagging the specified items."

_"I will do so. There is one other matter that must come to your attention. The item in Cargo Hold 47 is resonating."_

"But that means..."

_"Yes. What are my orders regarding this?"_

"How long ago did the item begin resonating?"

_"2.435 hours ago."_

"That means we still have time. The candidate is here, and that's good. Alert me if any further developments arise."

_"I will."_

The comm cut out and Robert placed his comm unit back in his jacket. It was resonating. That meant that this world...he was here to stay. And he had an idea about who the candidate was. CLOC did identify her as the most powerful combatant.

But that was in the near future. They were probably looking for him, on both sides. If they wanted him that badly, they would find him. Might as well let it happen.

* * *

"Why do I have to wear this stupid thing? It's riding up my ass!"

That was Mammoth, always complaining. Gizmo, Mammoth, Jinx, and See-More were in Gizmo's workshop in the bowels of HIVE Academy. For the last six hours, Gizmo had been fitting Jinx, Mammoth, and See-More with prototypes he had only recently invented, Genetic Reinforcement Modules, or GRMs. They were designed to boost metahuman power levels by at least 80 percent.

"Explain to me again why I've been drafted for this...massacre?" See-More said.

The team and the squad of HIVE commandoes Brother Blood had sent out yesterday had come back empty-handed. When called to task on their failure, they had said a new hero had stopped them. All Mammoth would say was that "He threw a car into space, man. With one hand!"

Brother Blood had ordered the three of them to go back out and confront this newcomer, probe him for weaknesses. That was what See-More was here for. To scan the stranger with his powers and determine what flaws that could be exploited. The GRM boosted his vision powers considerably.

"...and that's why you're here." Jinx finished.

"I still don't like it. What if this guy decides to throw _me_ into a car?" See-More said.

"Then you'll get thrown into a car!" Mammoth barked. "But yer going."

Gizmo finally finished. "What about you?" Jinx asked."You don't have any powers."

Gizmo tapped his head. "That where you're wrong. I've been working on this for a while.." Gzmo walked over to a sealed storage locker and keyed in a code. The seal broke and the door opened with a _HISS. _

"What happened yesterday caused me to go into high gear and finish this." The gas and coolant dissapated, revealing a black and silver battlesuit, with laser cannons and missile pods mounted. Tapping another control, the suit walked out of the locker and opened, revealing space for an occupant. Gizmo donned a helmet with a synaptic link and suited up, the armor closing around him. His voice came out metallic and tinny.

_"That freak played us for chumps yesterday. Today, we're gonna even up the score."_ A panel opened up on the armor's left arm and a disk launcher popped up. _"This launcher shoots gravity multipliers. We'll see how that Superman wannabe likes Earth gravity times 400."_

Jinx hopped off the workbench and cracked her knuckles, a wicked grin on her face. "I like the way you think, Dr. Frankenstein. Let's move out!"

* * *

Raven was conducting her sweep of Sector 4, the commercial district. It was early evening, and the crowds from earlier in the day had cleared out. The streets were lightly populated with people who wanted to conduct some leisurely shopping. That was also the time of the day Raven liked to come here. many of the stores didn't interest her, but there was one bookstore. It was the only place in the city that carried Nietzsche and the other European philosophers. Being a Titan paid well, extremely so, but she didn't spend money often. When she did, she usually spent it here.

She was now hovering a hundred feet or so above the bookstore. It was called A_lexandria_, after the ancient library. She looked at the entrance. The doors opened and a tall boy around Cyborg's age stepped out, carrying a bag with several books. Something seemed familiar about him.

_Could it be...?_

It was confirmed when he suddenly looked up and their eyes met. How had he known she was there? He met her gaze. Raven somehow felt that in some way, he had been looking for her too. But that was impossible.

A sudden screech of metal and of air passing abound something massive cut the moment. A tour bus was speeding right at him. At the last moment, Raven saw him drop his bags and center himself, and a bright flash lit up the city.

She tapped her communicator and activated the built-in homing signal. "This is Raven. I've found him. But it appears HIVE has too." Acknowlegement lights flashed and she stowed her communicator. She dove down and touched down just as four HIVE members approached. She summoned her energy and created a shield. Her eyes blazed white.

"Step back." she growled.

Jinx, Mammoth, See-More, and some kind of armored battlesuit stepped into view.

"You're in no position to say anything, witch." Jinx said. "We've come to settle the score with your friend there. Hitting him with a bus is only the beginning."

With a gesture, Jinx fired a beam of force that was several hundred times as powerful as before. She was careful to focus it on a precise location in Raven's shield, overloading it with energy at one focal point. Raven was thrown back and sent through a window, shattering it.

See-More ran foward, scanning the interior of the bus, which was lodged halfway inside the bookstore. With the GRM, his powers were enough that he could scan for energy signatures, as opposed to just seeing in the x-ray and thermal spectrums as before. His eye widened, and he stepped back.

"I think you guys better get ready." he said, edging away.

Raven struggled to a sitting position and brushed broken glass off. She was cut in several places, but nothing serious. Her cloak was a lost cause, cut to ribbons. With a hiss of hydraulics, the tour bus doors snapped open, and one person stepped out. Raven had to briefly shield her eyes, as he was emitting some kind of light. His aura was strong enough to be visible, registering as a shade between gold and amber.

The Sentry looked at them, and then at her. He then turned around and stepped through the broken plate glass window, looking at her. He extended a hand, and she took it, surprised at the amount of force in his grip. To say he felt solid was an understatement.

But whn she attempted to call her energy back to the surface, something strange happened. Her dark energy crackled through her hands and somehow interacted with his own energy. An aura quickly surrounded Raven as well, one created out of negative light, the blackness absorbing all color. This energy reacted with his aura, and Raven suddenly found herself unable to let go. They were locked in a deathgrip.

Suddenly, the world seemed to speed out of control, and strange images and sensations flooded Raven's mind. She seemed to be filled with white light and boundless energy. Words that were not her own came to mind.

_I've been given the energy of a million exploding suns for a reason..._

_General Fury, I will defend this planet with every breath in my body. But this time, that may not be enough..._

_Lindy, I-I can't be the Sentry forever...whatever you think, I'm not a god, however much you may wish I was one... I am still Robert Reynolds when all this is said and done...you have to accept that..._

_Get out then, you...you bitch! There's a million other women out there! Hopefully all of them aren't all parasites like you! What a joke... the Sentry isn't real, Lindy! But I am! If you can't accept that, get the hell out..._

_CLOC, I created you because people die. That is inevitable. But my powers can change that. But I need to know where I'm needed, where my power can be best put to use. Someone must make those hard choices, who must live...who must die. That is why I need you..._

Robert saw darkness. He was removed from the Earth and stood on a lonely rock, far in space. the black universe roared and moved around him, blood-red stars winking like eyes. Far in the distance, a throne, miles high, stood, surrounded by fire. A dark being sat upon the throne, cloaked in shadows, except for massive arms ending in black claws, cloven feet, stamping impatiently, and four eyes blazing with destructive intent.

One of the massive claws pointed at him, in judgement.

_"What you have hidden, you shall become." _a smoky voice boomed. _"You are the means of my victory. The Age of Mortals shall soon come to an end. The Earth shall burn...it will become my beachhead. All life shall bow at the feet of Trigon the Terrible...Trigon the Destroyer. You shall be the hammer with which I shall smash all living things..."_

Robert had no idea what this meant. All he knew was that he had to fight this, somehow. Perhaps going to Earth would be the answer...Earth had many heroes now. Perhaps one of them could help...

The connection was broken with a loud explosion that broke the two of them apart. Gizmo had shot a missile at them which had impacted the energy field created by their connection and violently forced them apart. Raven was thrown over twenty feet and impacted against a far wall of the bookstore, knocking over a bookshelf. The Sentry slammed into the crashed bus, crumpling its back end severely.

"I don't know what happened, but that wasn't so difficult." Mammoth smirked, moving in for the kill. He was suddenly stopped by a starbolt impacting on his back. Starfire flew in and hit Mammoth square in the jaw, knocking him back several feet. Starfire suddenly held her hand in pain.

"Your hide is tougher than a saurian krill beast! How are you so strong?!"

"We've been upgraded, honey." Mammoth said, tapping the GRM mounted to a harness he wore. Three of the HIVE members wore similar units, and Gizmo was piloting some kind of battle armor.

"Then we'll just have to beat on you some more." Cyborg said. He was flanked by Beast Boy, who morphed into an elephant, and Robin, who had his bo staff at the ready, along with several concussion disks. "Free of charge."

Suddenly, the bus that had been imbedded in the storefront smashed out, and flew back several dozen feet to land on its side across the street. Walking out of the hole was the Sentry, carrying a cut-up Raven in his arms. There seemed to be some kind of reaction going on again, as they were both glowing diffent colors. The Sentry, a brilliant gold-white, Raven a severe black-purple. At the points of contact, the color was a wildly shifting purple.

Raven lifted her head and raised one arm. Her eyes glowed a dull silver. She said one word.

_**"Away." **_

Purple lightning flashed from her arm and struck the four HIVE members. Gizmo's armor reported multiple suit integrity breaches and partially melted. Gizmo escaped using a rocket pack before it exploded. The lightning also overloaded the other HIVE members, short-circuiting their GRMs. Mammoth, See-More, and Jinx quickly ripped the modules off before they also exploded, lighting up the night. In the smoke and fire, the four of them escaped.

Raven held up her arm for another moment before the energy arced and began to fade. She then lost consciousness.

Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg and Robin approached. The Sentry looked at them, then at her. "Something...strange happened when I touched her. I-I don't know what I saw."

"Raven needs medical attention." Robin said. "You should come too."

Everyone looked up in the air as an electronic harmonic sounded. Floating siletly out of the sky was a metallic orb, around the size of a globe. Spaced evenly were five long metallic tentacles that waved slowly and gracefully around the body. One large eye, clear against the dark night, could be seen. It came to a stop in front of the Sentry.

"CLOC," he said. "Scan her."

The machine emitted a scanning laser and scanned the both of them for several seconds. Then it stopped.

_"Amazing. Do you know her energy shares many similarities with your own? It is processed differently, however. There is...much untapped potential in this young lady. What we have already seen may only be the beginning of the application of her abilities."_

"What's happened to her?" the Sentry asked."Why is she unconscious?"

_"It appears that contact with you has...altered her energy signature. Reformatted it. The energy, the power is still there, but it has been moved, shifted somehow."_

"You have to come back with us to Titans Tower." Robin said. "She needs help."

"All right." he looked at CLOC. "Interlink with the ship and land at my coordinates."

_"Affirmative."_ CLOC began hovering away.

"Wait," Beast Boy tapped the Sentry. "You have a _ship_?"

"I have a lot of things." he said, before taking off, Raven in hand, towards Titans Tower.


	4. Point of Origin

Even at top speed, the T-Car and Robin's R-Cycle had no chance of keeping up with the Sentry. He was a shining gleam in the dark sky, speeding towards the coastline before touching down on the island off the coast. He waited, carrying Raven by the Tower's main entrance for the T-Car and the R-Cycle to make it over the bridge connecting Titan's Tower to the mainland. Tapping a control on the dashboard, Cyborg deactivated the defenses and the doors opened.

The Sentry walked in, careful not to make any quick movements. Raven was nonresponsive and slightly curled up in a fetal position. The other Titans stepped back, as she began emitting heat. It was a small furnace anywhere five feet around Raven. But the Sentry seemed unaffected by this.

"Where is your medical bay?"

"Upstairs, third door on the left." Cyborg said. "What happened back there?"

The Sentry looked at Raven. "I don't know...Our energy reaction had some sort or effect. There was a link." He looked at them. "Who is Trigon?"

The four Titans froze and looked at each other. Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at one another, remembering their trip inside Raven's mind, a vacation they never wanted to go on again. Robin had done his own research on Raven, and had been briefed by Batman. The fufillment of Raven's past would have...disastrous consequences for the world. Trigon to Starfire was the representation of evil, a destroyer known throughout the universe for his cruelty and brutality.

Raven stirred briefly. "Trigon...Trigon isn't important. Not anymore. You're here...and everything has changed..." she lost consciousness again.

The Sentry gently laid her down on a bed on the medical bay and Cyborg powered up the diagnostic equipment.

"There appears to be some kind of...flux going on with her." he said. "Two forms of energy are interacting in her, down to the subatomic level. These two signatures are somehow merging. Into what, I don't know."

"Stay with her." Robin said. He then looked at the Sentry. 'We need to talk."

That was cut short by a chirp of a communicator. The Sentry pulled out a slim black comm unit and answered it. He then said "Disengage the stealth fields."

A loud _POP_ could be heard from outside, and a slight pulsing could be felt throughout the Tower. Everyone except Raven looked outside through the medical bay's large windows. Hovering some eight stories off the ground was a large ship made of a gleaming, silvery metal. The ship was slightly larger than an aircraft carrier with rumbling engine modules in the rear. The hull appeared solid, with no visible seams or welds as far as anyone could see.

A small bluish glow filled an empty part of the room, and a second later, CLOC materialized into view.

"Status?" the Sentry inquired.

_"System integrity at 100.0 percent. Tesseract systems are fully functional, dimensional waveguides tuned. The phase-space is stable. The only anomalous point of concern is the item in Cargo Hold 47. It's resonation has only continued to increase. The egg will break in 4 standard days."_

"What is in Cargo Hold 47?" Robin asked.

"That's unimportamt for now. It is no danger to any of you."

Cyborg and Beast Boy swarmed around CLOC, who seemed uncomfortable with being stared at. Cyborg had deduced that CLOC was some kind of artificial intelligence and was asking all sorts of technical questions, while Beast Boy just took turns staring at CLOC and at the ship. Starfire took a seat next to Raven.

"Would you like a tour?' he asked. "It would explain infinitely better who I am...where I came from, than I could."

"Dude, sweeet!" Beast Boy crowed. Cyborg seemed very interested. The power reading he got from just preliminary scans of the ship were...incredible.

Everyone made to exit the medical bay, Raven was dead to the world and wasn't going anywhere. A sudden _thump_ made everyone turn around. Raven was awake again, and struggling to stand up. Through force of effort, she managed to stay standing.

"Friend Raven, you must rest!"

"No. I want...I need to see this. there's something on his ship...I can feel it, even here. It will change everything. I know it. I need to come with you."

"All right, but if you start feeling weak again, _say something_. Don't keep it to yourself." Robin ordered.

* * *

Less than ten minutes later, everyone was outside, looking up at the ship. It was making Robin nervous, something so massive hanging over him.

"Do the honors, CLOC."

With a slight beep and a flash of blue light, the surroundings shifted from outside to several hundred feet off the ground, surrounded by white, shining metal. They were on some kind of bridge, large, but it could be operated by one person. There was a console brimming with holographic displays and controls, and one padded chair.

_"This is the bridge, of course."_CLOC said. _Many ship function are automated and routed through my logic array, except navigation and the primary drive unit. There is a small dormitory down that hallway,"_ a metallic tentacle pointed to a door down a hallway on their left.

_"Much of this ship is a warehouse, of sorts. We have travelled to many places, and we have in our posession items that are truly priceless. They are housed in the primary tesseract."_

"You have a functioning tesseract?" Starfire asked, speechless. "I have only seem one other, and it was in horrible disrepair."

"What's a tesseract?" Beast Boy asked.

_"A tesseract,"_ CLOC cut in. _"is a device capable of creating a phase-space, an artificial holding area, if you will. The limits on this space are nonexistent. It is a bottomless pit, to coin a phrase."_

"Your energy requirements for this must be immense."

_"It is. However our primary power core is more than up to the task, along with powering the rest of the ship's primary systems. The materials to create one are not present here, so it is also one of a kind."_

"What do you mean 'not present here'? Where are you from?" Robin asked.

The Sentry walked to a massive door at the far end of the bridge. Tapping a control, he opened it and it slid open, revealing an inky blackness beyond.

"Come with he, and I'll show you. You will be _quite_ interested." They followed him through, and the doors closed.

* * *

The next room was pitch plack, no light at all. There was an impression that it was large beyond imagining. It had that vibe of _space_.

"CLOC, lights."

Massive lights snapped on at the rooms ceiling, which seemed hundreds of stories high."

"How...how is this possible?" Robin asked. "Your ship isn't that large."

"A tesseract can create a near-_infinite_ space. The only thing that matters is to energy requirements to create this."

The Sentry led them to a small circular platform, which lifted off as soon as everyone was aboard. It seemed to rise forever, countless vaulted doors whizzing by, all numbered. Finally it stopped. Looking down, Robin could not see the floor.

They were in front of a vault door. It was labled **_CARGO HOLD 3452: CELESTIAL_**

The door opened, and they stepped in. Seeing what was inside, everyone involuntarily stepped back, except for the Sentry.

The room appeared to be over ten miles high, and what was in it easily dwarfed anything any of the Titans had ever seen before. It was a suit of blackened armor, massive beyond reasoning. It was humanoid, but that was all it was. There was a large crater in it's chest area, and there were pieces of the armor that seemed melted.

"X'Hal..." was all that Star could say.

"What is it?" Raven asked, although she felt somehow that she knew what this creature was.

"It's called a Celestial," the Sentry said. "many years ago, eight of them decimated my world and exterminated all life there. I am the last survivor."

"But you're human." Cyborg asked.

"In a way, although I have since moved far beyond being a mere human. No offence." he directed to Robin.

"I came from a paralell Earth, a quantum reality different from your own, and I'd like a fresh start. Here."

* * *


End file.
